CODEWITHSUNDEEP
mysqlsqlselect
Jared
Jared

Reputation: 96

mysql search comma list of number ranges

In one of my tables fields I contain age ranges. They would be in a format such as 

27-51,18-28,10-17
37-55,60-70
1-5,11-16,30-32,60-90
etc

I'm trying to build a SELECT statement where I can search if my given age falls into any of the ranges... something such as

SELECT * from table where age IN (1-5,11-16,30-32,60-90)

However it would search within the given ranges

I can do it if I only have one range using something like...

WHERE age 
BETWEEN
SUBSTRING_INDEX(personsAge,"-",1) + 0 AND
SUBSTRING_INDEX(personsAge,"-",-1) + 0

but how can I accomplish this if I have multiple ranges?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 80

Answers (1)

Florian Lim
Florian Lim

Reputation: 5362

This is an answer extending my comment above. I'm assuming that you can create a function:

Attention: This is for Sql Anywhere. Please adjust the syntax for MySql (especially the locate-function where the parameters are switched). The code is not production ready and I left out some validity checks. I'm assuming that the values in the column are all well formatted.

Attention 2: This is one of those cases where someone dumps a terrible database design on you and demands that you solve the problem. Please avoid creating the need for solutions like this.

Function:

CREATE FUNCTION "DBA"."is_in_range"(age_range varchar(255), age int)
returns int
begin 
  declare pos int;
  declare pos2 int;
  declare strPart varchar(50);
  declare strFrom varchar(10);
  declare strTo varchar(10);
  declare iFrom int;
  declare iTo int;

  while 1 = 1 loop
    set pos = locate(age_range, ',');
    if pos = 0 then
      -- no comma found in the rest of the column value -> just take the whole string
      set strPart = age_range;
    else 
      -- take part of the sting until next comma
      set strPart = substr(age_range, 1, pos - 1);
    end if;
    -- we are parsing the min-max part and do some casting to compare with an int
    set pos2 = locate(strPart, '-');
    set strFrom = substr(strPart, 1, pos2 - 1);
    set strTo = substr(strPart, pos2 + 1);
    set iFrom = cast(strFrom as int);
    set iTo = cast(strTo as int);

    if age between iFrom and iTo then
      return 1;
    end if;
    -- if at end of age_range then quit
    if pos = 0 then
      return 0;
    end if;
    -- get the next part of the string after the comma
    set age_range = substr(age_range, pos + 1);
    set pos = locate(age_range, ',', pos);
  end loop;

  return 0;
end;

Test data:

create local temporary table #tmpRanges (ident int, age_range varchar(255));
insert into #tmpRanges (ident, age_range) values (1, '27-51,18-28,10-17');
insert into #tmpRanges (ident, age_range) values (2, '37-55,60-70');
insert into #tmpRanges (ident, age_range) values (3, '1-5,11-16,30-32,60-90');
insert into #tmpRanges (ident, age_range) values (4, '1-50');

Call:

select * from #tmpRanges where is_in_range(age_range, 51) = 1;
select * from #tmpRanges where is_in_range(age_range, 10) = 1;
select * from #tmpRanges where is_in_range(age_range, 9) = 1;
etc...

Upvotes: 1

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